The State Confederation of Deaf People (CNSE) and the Spanish Confederation of Families of Deaf People (FIAPAS) have called for the accessibility of communication and information to be guaranteed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Specifically, José Luis Aedo President of FIAPAS, has denounced the lack of an accessibility strategy for people with hearing disabilities and has indicated that “every occasion in which a public servant appears to offer information to citizens is an occasion in which are lacking the means for elimination of communication barriers”.
In addition, he explained that deafblind people access audiovisual information through the transcription that their teams make of the subtitles to the braille display. “If information is not broadcast with subtitles, the deafblind person will not access it,” he warned.
For her part, the CNSE president has thanked the government for incorporating sign language interpretation in all its appearances, although she believes that access to information campaigns and official publicity on COVID-19 should be improved, through written texts and sign language.
In this sense, she has stated that “access to information as a fundamental right established in the Constitution and cannot be a privilege or a matter of majorities.”
